MITEI’s Annual Research Conference seeks to frame the key technology, policy, and economic drivers that are shaping today’s energy industry and its future. This year’s theme is Developing and deploying key decarbonization technologies: Science, students, and scale.
Questions? Contact MITEI Member Services.
MITEI continues to play key role in Institute’s efforts to mitigate climate change; it played a major role in developing the 2019-2020 MIT Climate Action Symposia series—the last in the series, which is happening this afternoon, will look at “What is the World Waiting For? Policies to Fight Climate Change” and is chaired by our own John Deutch. We hope you’ll tune in from 2-4 pm ET. The event will be livestreamed on the MIT Climate Portal at climate.mit.edu.
MITEI played a key role in support of MIT’s Climate Action Plan, which was announced in the Fall of 2015 and led to the development of MITEI’s Low-Carbon Energy Centers—two of which you’ll hear from in tomorrow’s program (CCUS and Mobility Systems). We compiled a “Progress and Outcomes” report that highlights MITEI’s myriad research, education, and outreach efforts from October 2015 through June 2020, which you can access by visiting energy.mit.edu/progress.
The underlying analytic tool constitutes more than a thousand individual energy pathways. SESAME, developed as a MATLAB application, provides a consistent platform to estimate life cycle GHG emissions of all stages of the energy sector. Furthermore, the system representation is embedded into the tool for power and transportation sectors. We are pleased to share that beta testing for the open source application opened up in mid-2020, and we are planning to release the tool online by the end of the year. Check out the SESAME tool website, including a look at our COVID-19 dashboard, which tracks U.S. energy consumption from March 16 to today, at sesame.mit.edu.
| Monday, November 16 | |
| 9:00-9:15 am ET | Welcome and opening remarks Robert C. Armstrong, Director, MIT Energy Initiative and Chevron Professor of Chemical Engineering, MIT |
| 9:15-10:30 am ET | The role of the university in educating for the energy transition Moderator: Antje Danielson, Director of Education, MIT Energy Initiative Speakers: Angela Knight, Senior Manager University Recruitment & Strategic Partnerships, Chevron Torben Orla Nielsen, Science Attaché, Innovation Centre Denmark Boston James Rincon, Manager & Corporate Innovation Lead, CEO Office, Avangrid Sanjay Sarma, Vice President for Open Learning, MIT |
| 10:30-11:45 am ET | Multidisciplinary approaches to low-carbon fuels Moderator: Desiree Plata, Gilbert W. Winslow (1937) Career Development Professor in Civil Engineering; Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Speakers: Steven Barrett, Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT Emre Gençer, Research Scientist, MIT Energy Initiative Asegun Henry, Robert N. Noyce Career Development Professor; Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering, MIT Yogesh Surendranath, Paul M. Cook Career Development Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, MIT |
| 11:45 am-1:00 pm ET | Decarbonizing industry Moderator: Emre Gençer, Research Scientist, MIT Energy Initiative Speakers: Yet-Ming Chiang, Kyocera Professor, Department of Material Science and Engineering, MIT Karthish Manthiram, Theodore T. Miller Career Development Chair, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, MIT Joseph Powell, Chief Scientist, Chemical Engineering, Shell Bilge Yildiz, Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering, and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, MIT |
| 1:00-2:00 pm ET |
MITEI student research: Poster session ExxonMobil Energy Fellow Francesco Benedetti presenting on “Advancements in polymer membranes for gas separation” Lisa Doh Himawan, ’88, sponsored Undergraduate Researcher Enrique Esparza-Villarreal presenting on “Use of exclusive and pooled ridehailing services in three Mexican cities” ExxonMobil Energy Fellow Omer Karaduman presenting on “Large scale wind power investment’s impact on wholesale electricity market” ExxonMobil Energy Fellow Sarah Khanniche presenting on “Accelerating the clean energy revolution with accelerated nanomaterial discovery” ExxonMobil Energy Fellow Laureen Meroueh presenting on “Effects of doping and microstructural variables on hydrogen generated via aluminum water reactions Enabled by a Liquid Metal” Alfred Thomas Guertin, ’60, sponsored Undergraduate Researcher Shreyaa Raghavan presenting on “Tackling Data Scarcity in Materials Research: Using Semi-supervised, Adversarial Training to Improve Classification of X-ray Diffraction Patterns” Chevron Energy Fellow Zachary Schiffer presenting on “Ionic Liquids as Safe, Energy-Dense Electrochemical Fuels” |
| Tuesday, November 17 | |
| 8:00-8:55 am ET | MITEI General Seed Fund Project annual check-up Moderator: Robert Stoner, Deputy Director for Science and Technology, MIT Energy Initiative Speakers: Daniel Schwalbe-Koda, PhD candidate, MIT presenting on “Automatic Design of Structure-Directing Agents for Novel Realizable Zeolites” Anthony J. Sinskey, Professor, Department of Biology, MIT presenting on “Biodegradation of Plastics for Efficient Recycling and Bioremediation” Shuai Yuan, Postdoctoral researcher, MIT presenting on “Direct Conversion of Methane to Methanol By MOF-Based Electrocatalysts” |
| 9:00-10:00 am ET | Keynote: The New Map: A conversation with Daniel Yergin Moderator: Robert Armstrong, Director, MIT Energy Initiative and Chevron Professor of Chemical Engineering, MIT Speakers: Daniel Yergin, Vice Chairman, IHS Markit Join the livestream here. |
| 10:15-11:45 am ET | Getting to net zero: The role of CCUS Moderator: T. Alan Hatton, Ralph Landau Professor of Chemical Engineering and Co-Director, Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage Center, an MIT Energy Initiative Low-Carbon Energy Center Speakers: Betar Gallant, ABS Career Development Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT Howard J. Herzog, Senior Research Engineer, MIT Energy Initiative Dharik Mallapragada, Research Scientist, MIT Energy Initiative Jennifer Morris, Research Scientist, MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change and MIT Energy Initiative |
| 11:45 am-1:00 pm ET | Tackling sustainable mobility: Ongoing research from MITEI’s Mobility Systems Center and new collaborations with the MIT Mobility Initiative Moderator: Randall Field, Executive Director, Mobility System Center, an MIT Energy Initiative Low-Carbon Energy Center Speakers: William H. Green, Hoyt C. Hottel Professor in Chemical Engineering; Postdoctoral Officer, MIT; Co-Director, Mobility System Center, an MIT Energy Initiative Low-Carbon Energy Center Joanna Moody, Research Program Manager, Mobility Systems Center, an MIT Energy Initiative Low-Carbon Energy Center Jessika Trancik, Associate Professor, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, MIT Jinhua Zhao, Director, MIT Mobility Initiative; Associate Professor of Transportation and City Planning, MIT; Co-Director, Mobility System Center, an MIT Energy Initiative Low-Carbon Energy Center |
| 1:00 pm ET | Closing remarks Robert Stoner, Deputy Director for Science and Technology, MIT Energy Initiative |